Who Said Aids Virus Is Rampant?

March 09, 1988|The Morning Call

"I'm not sure we chose the word 'rampant' ourselves." - Virginia Johnson, co-author of new book on AIDS

The experts on the sex lives of Americans, Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson, have overreached themselves. In their new book, "Crisis: Heterosexual Behavior in the Age of AIDS," they claim that "the AIDS virus is now running rampant in the heterosexual community." They (and their collaborator, Dr. Robert Kolodny) assert that three million American heterosexual men and women are infected with the virus and that the virus is multiplying at an alarming rate.

It is hard to imagine a more scary teaser guaranteed to give a new book a successful launching. Even a Newsweek cover (which the book boasts) pales by comparison. But is the conclusion sound?

Experts in the field of AIDS research as well as government scientists working in this area are skeptical. The scientific community knowledgeable about AIDS puts the spread of the virusamong heterosexuals at less than half the Masters-Johnson estimate. Moreover, Dr. Kolodny, a medical researcher and colleague of the authors, says the three million-figure projection was based on "computer simulations," on which he would not elaborate.

The authors surveyed 800 heterosexual men and women in four American cities. They contend that among the 400 sexually promiscuous sample (those with at least 30 different sex partners in five years), 14 women and 10 men, or 6 percent, had been infected with the AIDS virus. However, the authors would not identify the laboratories where the virus tests were carried out nor did they offer a defense over their claim that the AIDS virus could be spread by mosquitoes or by kissing. Indeed, insofar as acquiring the virus through kissing, Dr. Kolodny placed such transmission far down the scientific totem pole of "theoretical possibility."

AIDS is news. AIDS is deadly. By its nature, AIDS will receive considerable media attention. Masters and Johnson are well aware of this. But when they trade on their genuine good reputations as sexologists to air their theories on the spread of AIDS and offer the suspect data they have, one must respectfully decline to swallow their tale of doom. One must also question their motives.

Who said the AIDS virus is "running rampant" among American heterosexuals? The authors aren't certain. Thus, one is justified in dismissing this as marketing hype and in viewing the rest of the authors' principal argument through hype-colored glasses.